The United States has marshaled support from its European allies for significant sanctions against Moscow should Russian President Vladimir Putin proceed with a new invasion of Ukraine. But the strategy of relying heavily on the sanctions threat to shape Russian behavior faces challenges and limitations. Political divides on the issue …

Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan disrupted the erecting of a security fence by the Pakistani military along the border between the two countries, Afghan officials said on Wednesday. Pakistan has fenced most of the 2,600 km (1,615 mile) border despite protestations from Kabul, which has always contested the British-era boundary demarcation …

At a traditional year-end news conference, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said a potential meeting with the U.S. was a positive sign, but he also demanded a quick response to his security concerns. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday sounded a positive note about the security talks …

Poland says the EU’s decision reflects a trend towards ‘bureaucratic centralism’ in Brussels that ‘has to be stopped’. The EU has launched legal action against Poland for ignoring the bloc’s law and undermining judicial independence, prompting a sharp rebuke from Warsaw. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday said the …

If Russian troops massed around Ukraine do invade in the coming weeks, as many fear they will, Dec. 21, 2021, may go down as the day President Vladimir Putin fired the first rhetorical shot. Mr. Putin, seated before a group of high-ranking military officers on Tuesday, laid out an elaborate …

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed to restore a full ceasefire between the Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE said on Wednesday. “I was delighted that participants expressed their strong determination to fully adhere to the …

Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu offers no evidence of provocative accusations. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu claimed Tuesday that U.S. mercenaries were preparing Ukrainian special forces and radical armed groups for “active hostilities” in eastern Ukraine, and had delivered “an unidentified chemical component” to the region “to commit provocations.” Shoygu did …

What Might Happen If Abiy Ahmed Falls In October, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the Tigrayan rebel forces that control much of the country’s northern Tigray region and part of the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. His aim was to force the insurgents into a final …

Hostilities have simmered for years but tensions are now escalating amid fears of a Russian invasion. According to Washington, Russia has amassed more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine and in annexed Crimea in recent weeks. This has stoked fears in Kyiv and the West that the …

George Orwell, the author of “Animal Farm”, the satire on how a dictatorship can slowly but steadily evolve in a democratic society, and “1984”, a novel about a future dystopian dictatorship, was the first person to use the phrase “Cold War” in a 1945 newspaper article, written just after the …